* They have only one torch and the river is too risky to cross without the torch.
* If all people cross simultaneously then torch light wont be sufficient.
* Speed of each person of crossing the river is different.cross time for each person is 1 min, 2 minutes, 7 minutes and 10 minutes.

What is the shortest time needed for all four of them to cross the river ?

The initial solution most people will think of is to use the fastest person as an usher to guide everyone across. How long would that take? 10 + 1 + 7 + 1 + 2 = 21 minutes. Is that it? No. That would make this question too simple even as a warm up question.

Let's brainstorm a little further. To reduce the amount of time, we should find a way for 10 and 7 to go together. If they cross together, then we need one of them to come back to get the others. That would not be ideal. How do we get around that? Maybe we can have 1 waiting on the other side to bring the torch back. Ahaa, we are getting closer. The fastest way to get 1 across and be back is to use 2 to usher 1 across. So let's put all this together.

1 and 2 go cross
2 comes back
7 and 10 go across
1 comes back
1 and 2 go across (done)

You are in a strange place which is guarded by two guards.One of the guard always say truth while other always lies.You don't know the identity of the two.You can ask only one question to go out from there.
What should you ask?

If you ask the guard who always tells the truth, he would tell you the other guard would point you to the door of death. If you ask the guard who always lies, he would tell you the opposite door of the truth-telling guard and point you to the door of death. In either case, both guards will point to the door of death so you should choose the other one.

There is a 30km long bridge. The bridge can only support up to a weight of 2000 kg. A car that weighs 2000 kg needs to cross that bridge. When the car has reached midway of the bridge, a bird comes and sits on top of the car. The bird weighs 300 grams.